Take stock of some of the most brutal imperial civilizations in history
Brutality is a mirror of history and a magic mirror of civilization. There have been countless imperial civilizations in history, and they have left deep or shallow marks in the river of time, and there are many of them that are staggering and brutal. Today, let's turn the page of history together and count the most brutal imperial civilizations in history.
1. The splendor and bloodshed of the Roman Empire
The rise of the Roman Empire was inseparable from its iron-blooded conquest. From 27 BC to 476 AD, the rulers of the Roman Empire ruled large swaths of Europe, Asia, and Africa with endless ambition and military might. In order to maintain the rule of the system, the Romans carried out brutal repression against the rebellious peoples, and their methods were so cruel that they were outrageous. For example, in 70 AD, Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem, the holy city of Jews, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Jews, burned entire cities, and sold surviving residents into slavery.
II. The Conquest and Destruction of the Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire's iron cavalry once swept across Eurasia, and its conquests were as brutal as the Roman Empire. Genghis Khan and his successors conquered more than 40 countries with a population of nearly 200 million with Mongol iron horses. Their path to conquest was marked by bloodshed and carnage, and countless cities were reduced to rubble under this iron horse. It is said that during the capture of Baghdad, the Mongol army wiped out almost the entire city, leaving the largest city in the world at the time to a dead end.
III. The Genocide of Nazi Germany
If the imperial civilization of the past was brutal out of the need to dominate and conquer, then Nazi Germany was a human crime committed out of racial and national superiority. During the period of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, the Nazi regime promoted the doctrine of racial superiority and carried out large-scale persecution and massacres of the so-called "inferior peoples". One of the most notorious was the Holocaust. It is estimated that about 6 million Jews were killed under Nazi Germany.
Fourth, the Qing Dynasty's literary prison and massacre
The Qing Dynasty was an important dynasty in Chinese history, but its rule was not entirely bright. Especially in the period after Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty strengthened its control over the mind and created a large number of literary prisons, which caused countless literati and writers to suffer greatly. The most famous of these is the massive alteration and destruction of ancient books during the compilation of the Siku Quanshu. In addition, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty were extremely brutal in suppressing peasant uprisings, such as the massacre of Nanjing, the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty, which made the city almost empty.
These are just the tip of the iceberg of the brutal imperial civilization in history, and every bloodstain and cry is a testimony to the human suffering of that era. We look back on history, not to repeat the mistakes of the past, but to learn from them and better face the present and the future. May such history never repeat itself.